We allow ourselves to drift to the next level thinking there is nothing wrong with it. We have nothing in us anymore to draw a line. We continue to buy the mockery of the puritan. That somewhere someone might be having some fun. All we want is fun for ourselves. We have no desire to show or teach the next generation, we only want our fun and fall for the next thing offered.
Two years ago, we went to Walmart after dinner - only because our guests all left right after dinner to go there, leaving Mr sneakers and I looking at each other somewhat stunned. Why did they all leave? To go shopping?? On Thanksgiving??
Well, we went too. It was a horrible experience. The store was packed, shoulder to shoulder. We were like cattle. The only thing we could do was go along with the herd. It was the most ridiculous thing we ever witnessed. Well, that was the first and last time to ever do that. Now, we go to SIL’s where everybody stays after dinner and we have a wonderful time enjoying each other’s company. Mr S and I went out this morning (Official Black Friday). No crowds, no pushing, no rudeness, no fighting for ‘stuff’. Even the staff at the stores we went to were friendly. They were not under pressure. It was a much more pleasant experience!
Not me, neighbor. The annual "door-buster" orgy never has been my cup of tea. I can recall close relatives looking more toward Black Friday, with an ambiguous mix of dread and a gambler's rush, than Thanksgiving. But the appeal of discounts at the price of crushing crowds has never been sold to me as a bargain. I think I'd rather have my gums scraped.
Never have I seen the appeal. As to the encroachment of these sales on the national holiday, I'm not happy with there no longer being a distinct line, and at midnight, between the two events. I wouldn't go anywhere near a Wal-Mart or a Mall for one of these events, and I don't like the subversive quality on every possible kind of family and community of increasingly not allowing employees the same kind of fellowship.
Maybe an attack on another side of retailing having as close an interest in the Holiday could bring their fellow retailers back behind a proper line.
Proclaim the Thanksgiving Day holiday as a fast rather than a feast.